Depression and Anxiety Are Associated with Physical Performance in Patients Undergoing Cardiac Rehabilitation: A Retrospective Observational Study.

Background: Cardiac rehabilitation (CR) combined with stress management training has been shown to be associated with fewer clinical events than CR alone. However, there have been no reports on the associations of CR with the psychological condition and detailed physical activities evaluated on the same day.

Method: One hundred outpatients who participated in a CR program were graded on the hospital anxiety and depression scale (HADS). We divided them into a high HADS group ( = 32) and a normal HADS group ( = 68) and investigated by whole patients, ischemic heart disease (IHD) patients, and heart failure patients.

Results: Overall, the patient age was 70.5 ± 9.6 years, the percentage of males was 73.0%, and the body mass index was 23.4 (21.7-26.0) kg/m. In the high HADS group, overall functional mobility was poor and the distance in a two-minute walking test was short. Especially in IHD patients, the high HADS group showed high fat mass in body composition and low exercise tolerance and ventilator equivalents in cardiopulmonary exercise test.

Conclusions: Depression and anxiety involved poor physical performance in CR outpatients and particularly involved low exercise tolerance in IHD patients. To evaluate accurate physical performance, it is necessary to investigate psychological condition.